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| U.S. Supreme Court Considers Case of Tennessee Killer |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 11/18/2002 |
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Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman was days away from being executed this spring when the U.S. Supreme Court in a surprise agreed to consider keeping his appeals alive. Abdur'Rahman faces lethal injection for the 1986 stabbing death of a Nashville drug dealer. The high court is his last shot at a new trial. At issue is whether Abdur'Rahman's last-minute appeal claiming that the state didn't turn over evidence as it should have, made misleading statements and improperly prepared witnesses was filed too late under a federal law that limits death penalty appeals. But even as justices prepared to hear his case, they also questioned whether it was properly appealed. Prosecutors and Abdur'Rahman's attorneys were told to prepare more last-minute arguments. The court won't consider Abdur'Rahman's guilt or innocence, or whether he deserves the death penalty. The justices first must determine whether they have the jurisdiction. Then they can use the case to clarify rules for pursuing appeals. The bigger subject, which will not be addressed in Abdur'Rahman's case, is something that has troubled some of the justices: whether poor people facing death sentences get good legal help. Abdur'Rahman, 52, was on parole for another slaying when he stabbed a couple in 1986. Patrick Daniels and his girlfriend, Norma Jean Norman, were bound with duct tape and stabbed repeatedly with a butcher knife at Norman's home. Daniels died; Norman survived. Abdur'Rahman, known as James Lee Jones at the time, said he was trying to cleanse the Nashville community of drug dealers who sold to children. He was convicted in 1987 of first-degree murder and attempted murder and sentenced to death. In 1998, U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell threw out the sentence, saying the defense attorney's poor effort was a ''miscarriage of justice.'' A federal appeals court later reinstated the death sentence, saying the attorney's failures didn't affect the outcome. John Zimmermann, Abdur'Rahman's court-appointed trial lawyer, admitted he did little to prepare for the trial or the sentencing in his first capital case. He said he relied on information from prosecutors that blood was found on Abdur'Rahman's clothing. It was paint. Abdur'Rahman got new attorneys, who filed appeals that contended Abdur'Rahman's old attorneys failed to present evidence of his history of mental illness and physical and mental abuse. While serving time in a federal prison for armed robbery, Abdur'Rahman had been raped and diagnosed as ''highly disturbed.'' In 1972, he stabbed to death a fellow inmate and was convicted of second-degree murder. He said he killed the man because he was tired of forced sex. He received a life sentence, but was paroled in 1983. Last October, the Supreme Court turned down another appeal from Abdur'Rahman. His lawyers had asked the court to consider whether better legal help could have persuaded a jury to sentence him to life in prison. ''Ever since I began representing Abu-Ali, the only thing we've been asking is to have a court look at all the evidence and all the claims at one time,'' said Abdur'Rahman's attorney Brad MacLean. ''And we've never been able to do that. ... Some of his most significant claims have never been allowed.'' The latest appeal is based on allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a hearing on the allegations, saying a review is precluded by a federal law that limits death penalty appeals. Defense lawyers argue their claims should be reviewed under a different federal rule. ''We're back to resolving the technical questions one by one,'' said Kent Scheidegger, a spokesman for the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. ''It's this kind of nitty gritty that determines whether we'll continue to have an operating death penalty in the United States.'' Attorneys general from 30 states have filed a brief with the high court, saying if justices rule in favor of Abdur'Rahman, it will encourage more last-minute appeals, something that undermines the finality and validity of death penalty judgments. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision isn't expected until early next year. The case is Abdur'Rahman v. Bell, 01-9094. |
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